From All Africa (Kenya and Uganda)
If the churches had taken the position they did in the Kenya referendum 40 years ago anywhere in Africa, they would have prevailed.
They were very powerful then, and because there were really only two organised Christian religions - the Catholics and Anglicans - they had a monopoly of the God business.
Their following was massive. But God was never the main source of their social power.
In the 1950s and 60s, most "native" children in Africa went to school on church scholarships.
Many of the first crop of African Independence leaders, went to school courtesy of missionaries.
Your priest approved whom you married, and if you fell sick you were treated at a missionary hospital.
As the wealth of the Anglican and Catholic churches declined, and governments took over missionary schools and hospitals, their grip loosened.
(snip)
The balance of power is demonstrated by what happens in Uganda.
To every church person who is ordained a bishop, President Museveni gives a gift of a brand new Pajero.
Many bishops might risk annoying God, but few will want to incur Museveni's disfavour - until they have got their Pajero.
This is the age of Caesar, not God.
More here-
http://allafrica.com/stories/201008100387.html
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